The King of Drinks: Schnapps Gin from Modernity to Tradition (African Social Studies Series, 18)

ISBN: 9004160914

Author: van den Bersselaar, Dmitri

Condition: New

Review "This book is both provocative and subversive. The evidence that vanden Bersselaar provides for his central argument--that "imported goodsare likely to be incorporated into African consumptive patterns in waysthat make sense in the context of existing yet continually changing Africanworld views, ....." -- has important implications not only for our understandingof modern West African history but for broader scholarship on consumptionand commodities as well. Better yet, it's a pleasure to read". Charles Ambler in"African Studies Review 2008"Like many commodity histories, van den Bersselaar's book successfully combinesaspects of economic, political and social history with, in this case, excursions into thehistory of trade law and advertising" Insa Nolte in Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, Volume 23, No 2 (Spring, 2009) Product Description Using a focus on the trajectory of commoditisation of gin in West Africa, this book investigates how imported goods acquire specific local meanings. It shows that local consumers, not foreign advertisers, produced the importance of schnapps gin for African ritual About the Author Dmitri van den Bersselaar, Ph.D. (1998), Leiden University, is Lecturer in African History at the University of Liverpool. He has published on the social and cultural history of nineteenth and twentieth century Ghana and Nigeria